Young Americans received unwelcome news this week when an April 23 AP report found 53.6 percent of college graduates under the age of 25 are jobless or underemployed, and there is little hope for improvement in the near future. This news is grim for young Americans as well as an administration in reelection mode.
President Obama attempted to dull the pain young Americans are feeling when he recently told a group of college students in Florida he “wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth” then went on to blame the mess we’re in on capitalism. He described capitalism as a “broken down theory.”
Obama’s “broken down theory” statement is wrong on many levels, but chiefly because his statement conveniently erases a significant chunk of American history. — that time when Ronald Reagan inherited the worst recession since the Great Depression. It is the “worst” because Reagan and Obama inherited extremely similar recessions, but Reagan’s was coupled with double-digit inflation and a 20 percent prime interest rate. Reagan did a lot of things right, including lowering taxes, and before long, the economy boomed.
In sharp contrast, Obama has executed what many describe as “anti-Reagan” economic policies that have largely failed. His latest tax the rich scheme, the “Buffett Rule,” was defeated by the Democrat-controlled Senate last week. The Wall Street Journal, says it would have added “$793.3 billion to the deficit over the next decade” I reiterate: it would have increased, not decreased, the deficit.
It is as if liberals are caught up in a constant love-hate relationship with the successful, the job creators, and the “rich” — in that they despise their success, but know full well they’d be unable to spread the wealth around without their money.
At this point in time, Obama can’t help himself because he has surrounded himself with people that share the same anti-Capitalism value system. One of those people, Bill Ayers, was recently caught on camera at an Occupy Wall Street rally in New York saying, “I get up every morning and think today I’m going to make a difference, today I’m going to end capitalism.” At least he said it with a smile.
For the unaware, Ayers was involved with a group which bombed the U.S. Capitol and Pentagon during the Vietnam years, and openly admits he’s a “radical, Leftist and small ‘c’ communist.” Ayers has wasted much of his life polluting the minds of naïve college students, similar to what Obama appears to do when he stands before young audiences cherry-picking history and belittling the American Dream.
How disillusioned this group, who flocked to the voting booths en masse for Obama in 2008, must be. Most had no idea Obama’s “hope and change” would mean they’d not have the resources to pay for the federal deficit he’s piled on their backs, as well as the student loan debt they’re drowning in. They never dreamed “change” meant the end of their freedom of choice because Obamacare mandates that all must purchase health insurance, period. Most did not anticipate a lack of ample-paying jobs would force them to live in their parents’ basements post-graduation.
Young Americans deserve better and need to understand that the noise coming from the Left is just that. Statements suggesting that capitalism is “a broken down theory” are meant to dumb down their expectations to encourage them to exchange the hope of silver spoons for plastic forks. Frankly, the Democratic Party’s message of perpetual mediocrity is discouraging to young Americans who have a whole future before them and deserve the opportunity to pursue their version of the American Dream.
Photo credit: terrellaftermath
Loading ...
Destroying The California Dream
Cuba is a one-party state. North Korea is a one-party state. California is a one-party state.
I’m not trying to draw any false parallels.
But I’ve noticed bad things happen when one political party has complete control of a government for too long, whether it’s the Communist Party that’s wrecked Cuba for 50 years or the Democrat Party that’s wrecked California for 40.
So far, the Democrat monopoly in Sacramento has done nothing to cause Californians who seek greater freedom, lower taxes and a better business climate to begin taking rafts to Oregon or Mexico. But give the Democrats time.
They’ve already bankrupted the state and strangled its economy with high taxes, expensive green-energy policies and “progressive” regulations that scare off businesses, jack up housing prices or inhibit growth.
The other day the California Assembly proved once more that there is no bill too crazy or trivial for it to pass.
By a vote of 47-24, the Assembly passed AB 1960. The bill, almost certain to be approved by the state Senate, would allow owners of businesses that contract with the state to voluntarily identify themselves as gay, lesbian, transgender or bisexual.
The Democrat who sponsored the bill says it’ll let state officials and gay or lesbian groups pin down how much LGBT-owned businesses are helping the state’s economy. Republicans said it digs too far into private lives and is the first step in a quota system that would benefit the LGBT business community, which, the way things are going, probably already accounts for half of the state’s GDP.
Assembly Bill 1960 is likely inconsequential — just another government joke no one thinks is funny. But its passage is also a sign of a larger and very important long-term problem — there are too many Democrats in power in Sacramento and too few Republicans there to stop them.
Forget which party has held the governor’s office. It’s the Assembly and the Senate — Democrat-controlled playpens since my father was governor — that have turned the Golden State into the Great Train Wreck State.
Joel Kotkin probably knows more than anyone about the paradise California once was and the dysfunctional place it has become. Kotkin, one of the country’s top demographers, pointed out the other day that almost 4 million people have left California in the last 20 years. That’s 4 million above and beyond the people who have moved in from other states.
He says most of those fleeing are young, middle-class families seeking lower taxes and affordable living costs. Apparently, the chance to ride a bazillion-dollar bullet train from Los Angeles to San Francisco with their grandchildren is not worth 20 years of pain and suffering.
Kotkin, who calls himself a “Truman Democrat,” says the regime in Sacramento and its “progressive war on the middle-class lifestyle” is responsible for the destruction of the California dream. It’ll only get worse, he says, what with Gov. Brown proposing new taxes this year that are ostensibly aimed at “millionaires” but will hurt small businesses and young families.
I’m no demographer. But as far as I can tell, there’s only one sure way to reverse California’s death spiral — vote the Democrats out of power in Sacramento.
That means Republicans — conservative Republicans allied with sensible Truman Democrats — need to stand up and take back their state from the crazies.
The trouble is, the Republican Party of California is almost as much of a mess as the state. It has no leadership, no heroes, little money, and no clear message. The state GOP has another big problem — Republicans have run out of courage. While the Democrats have been going nuts, Republicans have lost theirs.
Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, and the author of “The New Reagan Revolution” (St. Martin’s Press, 2011). He is the founder and chairman of The Reagan Group and president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Visit his website at www.reagan.com, or e-mail comments to Reagan@caglecartoons.com.